Our interest has quite a lot of niches and corners that don’t usually get reported on, and the long-haul driving sim is certainly one of them. It’s there for many who wish to relax and calm down, nevertheless it’s additionally the house of fans who construct their very own cab, from luxurious steering wheels to reproduction seats.
It’s certainly one of gaming’s kinks, and Alaskan Street Truckers is the newest to feed it. If we’re sincere, we don’t absolutely perceive the style, however we’re curious to know extra. With that in thoughts, we jumped on the probability to speak to Michal Puczynski, the creator of Alaskan Street Truckers, to search out out what brings individuals – notably these sim-loving Germans – to its wheel.
Hello, might you please introduce your self and your position on Alaskan Street Truckers?
Hello, I’m Michal Puczynski, the CEO of Street Studio. I make sure the crew has all the things they should notice our imaginative and prescient and if we encounter a fork within the highway, I’m the one to decide on the trail, or no less than to approve the crew’s alternative.
Might you give us a fast overview of the sport?
Alaskan Street Truckers is a trucking sport first, however one which comes with all the extra layers of what you’d count on from a full trucking expertise. You play as a trucker, not as a truck, which suggests you may (and need to!) go away your automobile, go to outlets, put together for journeys, and eat and sleep as you’re taking up jobs that’ll take you to totally different elements of Alaska.
Now we have an enormous open world, a full seasonal cycle, all types of climate, truck repairs and customization, and in addition base improvement. You’re a trucker, not a truck.
There may be such a big and passionate viewers for long-haul simulations like Alaskan Street Truckers. For individuals who haven’t skilled this sort of sport, how would you describe the enchantment?
On one hand, it’s about vehicles themselves. Who wouldn’t wish to drive these enormous, monstrous automobiles? Alternatively, it’s in regards to the Alaskan expertise. Do you know that Alaska is the most important state within the US however its inhabitants is lower than one million? There are enormous areas the place it’s simply you and the wild. The cities aren’t that vast and so they all really feel cozy and good. There’s something romantic about dwelling there.
For a trucker, daily is an journey.
The place do you even begin in mapping a complete US state for a participant to drive round? Did you and the crew get to go to Alaska for that course of?
Sadly we didn’t get an opportunity to go there, however we studied all types of maps, and spent lots of of hours on Google Avenue View. In consequence, we created a map that’s a condensed, however fairly devoted model of your entire central a part of Alaska. Now we have all the main cities and plenty of small however memorable locations similar to North Pole, a city with Christmas decorations.
If we sat an Alaskan in entrance of Alaskan Street Truckers, would they recognise a lot of the place they reside? What landmarks have you ever included?
I actually do hope you’ll acknowledge no less than some cities or landmarks. Nonetheless, these aren’t 1:1 depictions, however reasonably locations closely impressed by actual Alaskan places. Other than cities, we’ve a system of Factors of Curiosity you could uncover, take a photograph of, and create postcards of to your assortment. These are locations just like the Igloo Lodge or the well-known (however now eliminated) Magic Bus.
We even have some locations that we created which are both “comfortable” easter eggs or maybe foundations for one thing sooner or later. However I’ll hush about that for now.
It’s unimaginable how detailed a simulation that is, as you store for items and keep your personal rig. It’s nearly 1:1 with the actual expertise. However is there a actuality of truck driving that you simply selected to not embody, or a line you wouldn’t cross on this approach? Rest room breaks, maybe?
For certain, there are issues that have been mentioned however didn’t make it to the sport. A few of them, like the bathroom breaks you talked about, would simply cross a line that we didn’t need to cross. We additionally determined to not embody trying to find now, partially because of the complexity of the mechanics, and partially as a result of it takes you away from trucking which continues to be our primary focus within the sport. However the world we’ve created is ripe for enlargement. First, we need to make a terrific trucker life sport. Then we will begin increasing it into one thing extra, if that’s what our followers want to see.
What’s your favorite element on this planet you could’t watch for gamers to search out?
My private favourite is a sure place impressed by a sure present I’m a fan of. I requested the designer to get inspiration from the present’s location. It’s an easter egg, however not a laugh-out-loud one, only a nod to a chunk of artwork that I am keen on. I’m wondering if gamers will discover it and make the connection.
Alaskan Street Truckers has a vibrant Discord group and also you usually replace them with blogs and many others. How necessary has your group been to the event of Alaskan Street Truckers?
It was essential. A variety of preliminary concepts for the life/survival mechanics got here from the group. Their suggestions from the demo impressed some key modifications to our mechanics. And their suggestions to what we present on Steam or social media makes us tweak the sport or artwork within the sport, generally in methods which are delicate however really feel necessary to the followers.
We additionally gather concepts for future expansions which are continuously shared on our Discord.
Can we count on extra content material for Alaskan Street Truckers sooner or later?
That’s the plan! We didn’t create a map of an enormous a part of Alaska to simply drop it after the sport’s launch. Now we have tons of concepts on easy methods to broaden it. And I don’t simply imply new map areas, but additionally what you are able to do within the locations that we have already got. It’s not at all times immediately associated to trucking as a result of we’d such as you to have the ability to in the end expertise many, many various elements of life in Alaska.
What’s subsequent for the crew? Are you shifting state by state, or are there totally different challenges on the horizon?
We hope the sport will likely be profitable sufficient to allow us to hold including to it. On the similar time, so as to full Alaskan, we paused our different challenge: American Motorbike Simulator. It’s a distinct beast, extra story-driven. It will be good to renew work on it as a result of it’s a really distinct sport with a soul. We even have an thought for one thing else that might make the most of our expertise in simulators and add a totally contemporary new layer to them, nevertheless it’s waaay too quickly to debate it.
And eventually – Cash isn’t any object: what do you get put in in your long-haul truck?
A luxurious compartment for my pet companion!
Give the trailer for Alaskan Street Truckers a watch if you wish to see it in motion. Alaskan Street Truckers is due for launch in 2023 on Xbox Collection X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC – try the Steam web page. That doesn’t go away a lot time to get the fluffy cube and cup holders on order.
Big thanks exit to Michal for offering additional perception into the world of Alaskan Street Truckers.
